LACEY, Wash. – Seniors Alysa Horn and Sasha King combined for 37 points but the Alaska Anchorage women's basketball team could not complete a big comeback Wednesday in a 65-60 loss to Northwest Nazarene in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Tournament quarterfinals at Marcus Pavilion.
The two-time defending champion and 4th-seeded Seawolves (17-10) also got 10 points and a career-high-tying nine rebounds from freshman guard Jenna Buchanan as they suffered their first-ever loss in the 3-year-old tournament.
Fifth-seeded Northwest Nazarene (20-7), ranked No. 9 in the West Region poll, got 16 points and three assists from guard Chelsie Luke as the Nampa, Idaho, squad got a huge boost to its NCAA Tournament chances.
UAA trailed from the outset, falling behind 40-30 at halftime. The Crusaders scored the first bucket of the second half for their biggest lead and held a 56-48 advantage midway through the stanza but could never get distance between themselves and the Seawolves.
Horn – who finished with 20 points, seven rebounds, three blocks and three steals – hit a short jumper to pull within 58-55 at the 5-minute mark, and Jessica Madison completed a traditional three-point play to cut it to 60-58 with 2:02 remaining.
But NNU's Veronika Skokankova sank two free throws on her team's next possession and then stole the ball from King with 38 seconds to go. Horn sliced it to 63-60 on a layup with six seconds left before NNU point guard Heather Adams iced it with two more free throws.
King hit 5 of 8 three-pointers and finished with 17 points, seven assists and five rebounds, but the senior from Oklahoma also had 11 of UAA's 24 turnovers.
UAA, which finished in a three-way tie with NNU and Montana State Billings for third in the final standings, also loses senior Jordan Martin, who scored five points and grabbed three boards in her final game.
NNU advances to Friday's late semifinal game where it will face top-seed and nationally 6th-ranked Western Washington.
NOTES: Horn, who finished with 87 career victories in a Seawolf uniform, moved up to No. 9 on both the career scoring (1,134) and blocked shots (59) charts ... the Kodiak product also finished sixth in three-pointers made, tying Tirzah Church (113) on that list … it was Horn's eighth game with 20 or more points this year … King finished No. 4 on UAA's career assists list (401) and wound up with a school-record 5.0 assists per game in her two-plus seasons … Madison made one three-pointer Wednesday to finish the year with a UAA freshman-record 36 treys … UAA loses nearly 37 points per game in production from its three-woman senior class, with King (15.5 ppg) and Horn (15.2 ppg) both ranking among the GNAC's top six scorers.
